‘Underemployed’ Star Michelle Ang Calls Playing a Lesbian ‘Challenging in a Good Way’

So far on MTV’s new drama series, Underemployed, we’ve watched the characters try to balance the reality of their post-college lives with the dreams they still hold for their careers.

But for one character, Sophia, it’s a bit different. Aside from being an aspring novelist, she’s just discovering her attraction to women. And Sophia finally told the crew on last week’s episode.

On Tuesday’s new episode, she’ll begin to explore her sexuality more – with some help from her friends. Michelle Ang, who plays Sophia, says she didn’t take the storyline lightly.

“I talked to lots of gay and lesbian people about their experiences,” Ang tells Celebuzz. “Because I really wanted to know what it was like to realize that maybe you were different from society’s expectations and how that affected people internally, as well as how it affected their relationships with their friends and their family.”

Coming out doesn’t happen in a vacuum and the show will take a look at how Sophia’s revelations affect those around her.

“What Sophia’s journey is about is definitely like an individual journey, but also we explore how her friends kind of help her through that journey as well, and also how her family reacts to that,” the 29-year-old previews. “It was really challenging and as an actress having to find chemistry with other actresses it was kind of a new experience for me and kind of confronting of my own real world sexuality.”

Despite her research, Ang says that there was really a lot to be learned from just actually playing the role – including some pretty awkward moments.

“I remember one of the earlier scenes, one of the directors shouting out, ‘You look like two straight girls making out,’ which was terrible,” the New Zealand actress remembers. “We’re all like, ‘Oh god, I’m not doing my job properly.’ But, yeah, I’m really glad I got the opportunity to do it. It was challenging in a really good way.”

Ang seems to welcome challenges in her life. While acting in New Zealand, she actually studied chemistry and accounting in college. And as her new MTV series is premiering here in the U.S., Ang is preparing her own one-woman stage show in Auckland, New Zealand. Ang not only wrote and produced Chop/Stick, but she also plays 11 characters in it.

“It’s such a golden opportunity,” Ang tells us. “In the life of an actor, you’re never really sure where your next job is coming from. I knew that these couple of months I wasn’t going to be working on anything else, so I just took the opportunity to put on this love project of mine, which I’ve been working on for like four years.”

Underemployed airs Tuesdays at 10 PM on MTV.

How do you think Michelle is doing so far in the role of Sophia? Tell us in the comments section below.

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